Although born in Europe, the automobile really grew up” in America, becoming an expression of the nation’s values and technology as well as an engine of economic and social change.  In fact, nowhere else has the automobile been a more pivotal player on a national stage.  We were quick to adopt the “horseless carriage” as our own.  We paved landscapes so we could drive the machines everywhere (to the ultimate decline of our railroads).  We perfected interchangeable parts so we could build cars consistently then made Detroit the Motor City by devising the mass-production assembly line to turn automobiles out so efficiently that everybody could afford one—the very essence of democracy.   Americans made cars bigger and heavier than Europeans did, if only for comfort and durability in a large nation full of wide open spaces.  The cars were also made to be as fast and powerful as possible.  And why not, when gasoline was so much cheaper and more plentiful here?  Historically cheap gas not only hastened America’s acceptance of the internal combustion engine over steam and electricity, it made Detroit the home of horsepower—all the better for covering, say, 500 miles in a day.  The typical European road trip doesn’t cover half that distance.
     One thing is the way American automobile design still reflects the can-do flamboyance of Americans. This holds true not only for appearance, which Americans tend to alter more often and capriciously than Europeans, but also for technical features, which have often been something less than advertised.  Yet if Detroit was once ridiculed for gaudy gimmicks and faddish “planned obsolescence,” it was only because Americans most always believed that “new” really was “better.” Besides, how else to encourage people to buy from an industry that came to account directly or indirectly for one of every three American jobs?

The Duryea 1893- First American
gasoline-powered automobile